District, activists settle 'Huck Finn' dispute

Fort Worth Star-Telegram ^ | 11/01/2007 | JESSAMY BROWN

[VRWCmember]

HALTOM CITY -- The Birdville school district superintendent will apologize in writing to a student offended by a lesson on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and teachers will get cultural sensitivity training.

Those were the agreements reached Wednesday after a 90-minute meeting between school officials, 17-year-old Ibrahim Mohamed, his parents and a coalition of activists offended by the teacher's repeated use of a racial slur that is in the text of the classic 1884 Mark Twain novel.

The school district has removed the book from the Richland High School student's class and has allowed him to enroll in a different English class, but his parents say they will now go though a process of requesting that the book be removed from the district's curriculum.

Several group members described the meeting as very positive and productive.

"We are here today to say we will not tolerate the n-word being used by any educators anywhere in any school district throughout our region or the state of Texas," said Ron Price, a Dallas school district trustee. "It's critical that we examine all of our textbooks to ensure that the language is proper and that the language is not being used to abuse any child in any public school."

The concern centered on a lesson that prepared students to read the book, about a mischievous white boy who travels down the Mississippi River on a raft with Jim, a runaway slave. Jim is referred to as a n----- throughout the book.

The Mohamed family is still deciding whether the eleventh-grade student will stay at Richland High School or return to Trinity High School in Euless, where he attended last year.

On Wednesday, members of a new group, the Coalition to Stop the N-Word, met at the Birdville Administration Building with several administrators, including Superintendent Stephen Waddell, Associate Superintendent for curriculum and instruction Ellen Bell and Richland High School Principal Randy Cobb. The English teacher, who neither the district nor the group would name, did not attend the meeting.

The group issued five demands to the district, including eliminating the book from district classes. At a news conference after the meeting, the group announced that Waddell would issue a written apology to the student and his family and arrange future training sessions for Birdville faculty about cultural sensitivity, said Thomas Muhammad, coalition spokesman.

The teacher has verbally apologized, said Mark Thomas, district spokesman. The group also wanted her to apologize in writing but the school district cannot require her to do so.

And while the group wanted the teacher to be required to do community outreach work with black and Muslim communities, school district officials cannot comment on what, if any, disciplinary measures might have been implemented, Thomas said.

The district has a procedure to formally object to instructional materials by filing a complaint with the campus principal, who appoints a committee to study the material and decide whether the items should be used. Any decision can be appealed to the district superintendent and then the school board.

"I'm pretty comfortable about the whole situation," Ibrahim Mohamed said. "I feel good about the meeting."

Online: www.birdville.k12.tx.us

Book challenges

Complainants fill out a Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials form with information about the material in question and recommendations for other material that could be used to teach the subject.

The requester can ask that the material be removed from the curriculum, used only as a resource or restricted from use by their own children.

The instructional material can include books, textbooks, video, displays, magazines, library programs, audio recordings, newspapers and electronic information.

Source: Birdville school district policy

Word Magic lesson plan

Step 1: Before students enter the classroom, have certain words written on the chalkboard. Examples include cancer, pregnant, n-----, peace, Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test.

Step 2: Ask students to respond to these words.

Step 3: Personalize the words by showing sentences on the chalkboard. You are pregnant/Your girlfriend is pregnant. You are a n----. You have peace. You failed your TAKS test. Explain a scenario to help students understand meanings of words used in context. "You are in the doctor's office for a follow-up visit. The doctor steps out of the room, and you see the word 'cancer' written on your chart."

Step 4: Ask students to respond to the change in meaning of words because of context.

Step 5: Discuss the power of words. Why did Twain use the word n-----? Was it personal for Twain? Is this word personal today?

Step 6: Decide as a class how to handle the word n----- when it appears in the book. Skip it? Replace it? Say it? Should each person have a choice of what to do?

Source: Birdville school district

Email author: jessamybrown@star-telegram.com
JESSAMY BROWN, 817-685-3876

[nathanbedford]

Well Congressman: I'm afraid it's worse than requiring a bureaucrat to apologize to a student, this is a case of censorship which denies the majority the right of access to a masterpiece of American letters. Huckleberry Finn is arguably the greatest American novel ever written.

The irony of all this is that Mark Twain in this uniquely American work has undertaken seriously and sensitively to deal with the unique American original sin. As I have observed in my about page, the sin of slavery and the sin of racism was in effect papered over in the Declaration of Independence and compromised and temporized away in the Constitution. Mark Twain deals with this uniquely American history in a uniquely American book, written in the uniquely American idiom. That idiom, to be truly American, requires the use in that context of the word nigger. Moreover, both plot and character developement - which is the awakening of tolerance personified in Huck Finn-require the sensitive use of the word. If Huckleberry Finn were not a bigot to begin with, he would have no need to be edified. Both he and America would have learned nothing.

No one who boasts of any acquaintanceship whatever with American letters can have failed to have read, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

But we have sunk so deep into the muck of political correctness, in this case group rights, that we have enshrined the subjective to the point of book burning. Perhaps the most egregious example of this occurred among bureaucrats in Washington, DC municipal government who chastised a colleague and, I think, ultimately drove him from office for using the word " niggardly". The whole of the City Council were entirely ignorant of the real meaning of the word. We were told, however, that what was important was the sensitivity of these black politicians because of America's history of racism. Since America is guilty, we must repent and those who enjoy the classification of victim must be indulged even at the cost of Stalinist censorship.

What of the rights of the rest of the kids to read and grapple with the question of race in America instructed by a book which for a century and a quarter has advanced the cause of racial justice more than 10,000 groups of burners could ever hope to achieve?

What about the right to teach a masterpiece of American literature without fear of being sentenced to a reeducation class? What about the freedom of speech of the teacher? We have denied other students the right to read, and now we deny them the right to hear as we deny their teacher their right to speak. It is no exaggeration to call all of this " Stalinist ."

[Little Bill]

Mark Twain was required reading when I was in skool, I am surprised that they haven’t banned “ An Innocent Abroad”.

[atomic conspiracy]

In the story, Huck overcomes his prejudices through a recognition of Jim’s simple humanity, rather than through sensitivity training or Marxist dogma. Can’t have that in the public schools.

[Old Professer]

You have to read that all to see the culture of Huck’s thought, a boy off on the adventure of his life so determined to be unruly, clever and grown up in the company of an already grown servant made a runaway too by his companionship of the errant youth.

The gap between them was bridged and the companionship made mutual with Huck’s final decision; and though just a boy still, he was more grown than he ever imagined he’d be.

Here is a look at Twain’s racist writing as it has come to be called: http://www.salwen.com/mtrace.html

[atomic conspiracy]

You only think you’re joking.

Among other things, Twain quoted 1860 Turkish census figures that showed a Jewish plurality in Jerusalem, decades before Zionism. Islamo-bullies and their dhimmis wouldn’t care for that inconvenient truth at all.

[Little Bill]

I know, I spent five years of my History self taught course ,reading exploration, on the Byzantine Story. I find the ignorance of the American people about Middle Eastern History deplorable.

[Steve_Seattle]

A few months ago, I took a different than normal bus home from work, which led to my being “entertained” for 45 minutes by two young black men repeatedly calling each other the “N” word. That just goes to show the harm that can come from forcing students to read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” /sarcasm

[atomic conspiracy]

I guess they didn’t get to the part of the story where Duke and King dress Jim in a kaffiyeh and charge people admission to see the “Mad Arab, harmless when he is not out of his mind.”

We could have expected a major jihad from Haltom City’s Arab street, all 6 of them. That would be more than enough to cow the little mice at the school district though.

[Verginius Rufus]

They should publish an edition of Huck Finn suitable for use in schools, in which the N-word is replaced by "African American" or "slave" (depending on the context).

[usurper]

I have some personal papers written by a distant relative from around the same time. He was in the military and was traveling to our southern border for some forgotten dust up with Mexico.

He was just some kid out of Iowa leaving town for the first time. In his writing he refers to the first time he saw black people and referred to them by the n-word. He did not use it is a disparaging way but simply as a common description like Indian or Mexican.

Historical context is everything but some people have an agenda to keep America separated.

[PAR35]

I hope that that boy never runs across the original Tom Swift books. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/01tom11h.htm

[dragonblustar]

And while the group wanted the teacher to be required to do community outreach work with black and Muslim communities,

I bet they really wanted to stone her.

[Non-Sequitur]

"It's critical that we examine all of our textbooks to ensure that the language is proper and that the language is not being used to abuse any child in any public school."

Except, of course, when it comes to black authors like Richard Wright or Maya Angelou, right?

[Non-Sequitur]

I figured he was offended by the part where they slaughter the pig and “let him bleed out on the floor.” I think Jim does the deed, in fact.

No, Huck does that when he fakes his death. My daughter's reading it in Junior English right now.